Right after our big long freeze event in February, my PowerWall quit working. It was refusing to use grid power. Pleas to Tesla Energy for a service call went nearly ignored. After the better part of a day trying to get back on grid power, I decided to wire around the PowerWall Gateway. The only way to do that safely was to pull my meter. So, I notified Bluebonnet, cut the seal and pulled the meter. After I figured out what needed to be done, it was a less than half hour job to do it. The primary obstacle was bending and moving very heavy copper wire. I was extremely relieved when I plugged the meter back in and found I had grid power again.
With essentially zero help or advice from Tesla, I determined that a big switch in the gateway box was just a 200 amp breaker rather than a transfer switch as I first thought. A search on the part number told me it was a very common unit. So, I ordered one. Installing the new one was a long, tedious, and painful job because of obscured mounting bolts and general congestion. I ordered several sets of deep sockets of approximately the right size. The right size turned out to be 10mm. Weeks later, the new breaker was in place. But, I had lost enthusiasm for the project and kept postponing putting the PW back in the circuit. I was uncertain that the bad breaker was the only problem. I would rather have hired Tesla or others to do the job. Meanwhile, I had bought a new three battery PW from an individual, not Tesla. I've become sensitive to the possibility of allowing the batteries to run down and become ruined. The "new" batteries have likely been in storage more than a year. The new gateway is "gen2" and my installed gateway is "gen1". I hope that tells me that the batteries are not very old. The "gen2" gateway seems not to have the 200 amp breaker that failed me.
So, today was the day. May 20. About three months after I disconnected the PW. Things went rather smoothly other than not being able to get the heavy wires stuffed down into the gateway box so it can be properly closed. Pull meter. Change four big wires from one set of lug connections to the others. Reinstall meter. Flip breakers, switches, disconnects back on. Everything works. The single positive result of all my pleadings with Tesla back in February was that my PW got properly associated with my Tesla account so that the PW, like cars, shows up on my Tesla smartphone app. I had had no communication with my PW for three months and I was extremely pleased to see it show up on the app with 70% charge. The sun was out so it immediately started charging at 5kw with excess power going to the grid.
The next step: I have three PW batteries, NIB, that have never been used or installed. So, I want to get them hooked up, either all together or one at a time, and make sure that they are not in danger of totally self discharging. The new batteries weigh maybe 300 pounds each and I am not very mobile. Moving them from my Sprinter to the house will be daunting. So, I'll likely wait to gain better mobility before I attack that project.
While writing this, the PW battery became fully charged. I believe I have it configured so it uses battery power after sundown until the battery gets down to 50%. Then, grid power, saving the last 50% for a power failure.
A little later.... I emailed Bluebonnet this morning to tell them the meter was ready for a seal. This afternoon, a guy showed up and installed a seal. With zero grief to me. No complaints about "only Bluebonnet people are supposed to remove seals". It is no wonder that I like being a Bluebonnet customer. More accurately, having Bluebonnet as a customer.
